2006 Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open

In round three, two of the shortest players in the field took over the tournament. Mi Hyun Kim, who stands barely five feet tall, and Ai Miyazato, who is maybe an inch taller, played in the final group together, and played well. While most of the golfers in the field struggled to make par, they continued to play well most of the day. The third player in their group, Lorena Ochoa, did not fare as well. After playing lights out golf much of the past few weeks, she finally had a difficult round. She wound up shooting a 3 over par 75 and sank to 4 under par total for the tournament.

Christina Kim followed her round 2 67 with another sensational round, a 69, which moved her into third place behind the two mighty mites. Karrie Webb also shot a 69 to move up to 5 under, and while Seon Hwa Lee was not able to do much this day, she did not make any big mistakes either. She wound up with an even par round which kept her at 5 under for the tournament and still in great position for a top five.

Meanwhile, Se Ri Pak started on the tenth hole. Her first nine holes were a bit ragged, but she was still making birdies and keeping herself in the game. When she reached the front, she picked it up, eventually finishing with a birdie to shoot a 70, a very strong round for this course in these conditions. It was the first time Se Ri had broken par since her third round of the year at the MasterCard Classic, where she also shot 70 on a tough course. She was hitting her drives better and starting to make putts. The finish left her in a tie for 15th at even par for the event. She had not had a top 20 since the end of the 2004 season, so she was in line, with one more strong round, to make her own little statement.

Back in the lead group, the two small Asian golfers were distancing themselves from the pack. Kimmie made birdie on holes 4 and 7 to move to 10 under total, which at the time was a four shot lead over the field. But then Miyazato started to peck away at that lead while Kim stalled. Miyazato birdied 8, then two putted the par 5 9th after reaching the green in two for another birdie. That moved her to 8 under, just two shots behind Peanut. But Mi Hyun increased the lead to two again after making a longish putt from the fringe on the par 5 tenth for another birdie.

Mi Hyun Kim made a mistake on the par 3 16th when she hit a fairly bad tee shot that she said later had been affected when the wind suddenly kicked up. She could not get up and down and fell to 10 under. She was not able to birdie the fairly easy par 5 17th, letting a good opportunity get away from her. Miyazato did birdie that hole, moving into a tie for the lead at 10 under.

The key action on this day, however, happened on the 18th hole. Unfortunately, CBS, which was covering the event, chose to leave the coverage after the two women finished 17. Both golfers reached the green in regulation, but Kim put her ball within just a few feet of the flag and made a birdie on this difficult hole to move back to 11 under. She shot a 69 for the day. Miyazato, however, had enormous difficult on this green and wound up four putting it for double bogey. Thus, there was a three shot swing on just this one hole. Miyazato was still in second place at 8 under par, and would play Sunday in the final group with Kim and Christina Kim. But for the first time in nearly four years, Kimmie had a solo lead going into the final round of a golf tournament. It was the best chance she had to win an event in a long time.

And it had been a tough journey for the Korean superstar. Her last victory had come in August of 2002 at the Wendy's Championship. In fact, that win came only two weeks after her previous win at the Giant Eagle Classic. Both events were contested in Ohio, weirdly enough. Kimmie finished in the top ten on the money list that year, and few could have suspected the victory drought that was to come.

But 2003 was her worst year to date; for the first time, she not only did not finish in the top ten on the money list, she barely finished in the top 20, ending up 20th on the list. She rebounded in 2004 thanks to an extremely hard off-season training regimen. That year she collected an impressive 15 top ten finishes and wound up 7th on the money list. Yet she still was not able to get a win, her best finish being a second place. She gained the dubious distinction of making the most money in a winless season in league history. In 2005, she slumped to an even worse year than 2003, finishing 23rd on the money list and "only" collecting 9 top tens. She commented that courses used to be short and tight when she started on tour, but now they were, for the most part, long without a lot of danger, favoring big hitters. Mi Hyun most certainly was not a long hitter, and was starting to feel like an anachronism on tour. In her heart of hearts, she began to wonder if her time on tour was over. As she sat on her lead Saturday night, she worried that, if she were not able to close the deal on this one, perhaps she would never win again.

There were certainly a lot of people who were trying their best to help her on her way. She had been dating an old college friend for the past year who runs a golf college back in Korea. He flew out to Florida just to support her in her efforts to get the win. She had another more unlikely force helping her on her way: Jesus Christ. It seems that her caddie was going to a church in town every night to pray for divine help in getting Kimmie the win. It seemed to have been working through three rounds, but the hardest test was yet to come.

Kimmie had some more good fortune come to her this week besides just her boyfriend's visit and her great golf. She became an aunt when her brother's wife, who had been trying to conceive for three years, finally had her first son. When she talked to the press after her second round, Mi Hyun almost seemed more excited about this development than about leading the tournament. As she explained, she was always volunteering to be a babysitter back in Korea because she 'likes the babies'. 'I'm so happy I'm Auntie Kimmie' she said.

But when the final round started, she might have been asking God, 'why hast thou forsaken me?' Because in the group ahead of her, Lorena Ochoa, who had played fairly badly in round three, suddenly went on one of those tears she seems prone to this year. She birdied five holes in her first seven, shooting up from four under to nine under par in record time. After birdieing the first hole, Mi Hyun bogied several holes to fall to nine under. She had started the round with a seven shot lead over Ochoa; by the eighth hole, they were tied. At least Miyazato was no longer a threat after a triple bogey on the second hole dealt her momentum a crushing blow. But Ochoa was even more dangerous than the young Japanese rookie, and having her breathing down her neck would be a big challenge for the Super Peanut.

Fortunately, a two shot swing on the 9th hole helped matters for Kim. She made birdie on this par 5, and also made birdie on 10, to move back to 11 under and even for the day. Ochoa bogied 9, a mistake she later claimed was crucial. She birdied the 10th, though, to move back to within two shots.

At this point, Ochoa's playing partner Karrie Webb started to catch fire, and shot up the leaderboard with multiple birdies of her own. As if it weren't bad enough that Mi Hyun had Ochoa breathing down her neck, she now had to worry about Webb as well. Seon Hwa Lee, the third member of that group, however, was having a bad day. She would fall out of the top ten, but her 12th place finish was yet another strong one for the super rookie.

Christina Kim, playing in the final group, did not have a particularly good day. But she had one highlight that was hard to forget. On the par 3 12th hole, she dunked her tee shot on the fly for a hole in one. Christina Kim making a hole in one is an adventure you don't forget! First she hugged Mi Hyun and Miyazato. Then she literally danced her way down the fairway to the hole. When she reached the green, she looked around as though she couldn't figure out where her ball had went. She coyly peeked into the hole, then put her hands to her face in mock surprise. There's where the little devil went, she seemed to be saying. Christina's always good for a little entertainment!

Meanwhile, some other old time golfers were making their presence felt. Hee-Won Han had been having a somewhat lackluster event to this point, and sat at 2 over par to start the day. But showing the explosiveness she can sometimes have, she catapulted up the leaderboard early in the day. She wound up finishing with a 66, tied for the best round of the day, which lifted her to a 4 under total and a tie for 5th. Hee-Won seems like she is finding her form; look for her to contend sometime in the next few events.